A Simplified Sub-Surface Soil Salinity estimation using Synergy of
Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel-2 multispectral satellite data, for early
stages of wheat crop growth in Rupnagar, Punjab, India
- Akshar Tripathi,
- Reet Tiwari
Abstract
Soil salinity has today become a highly disastrous phenomenon that is
responsible for crop failure worldwide and specially in countries with
low farmer incomes and food insecurity. Soil salinity is often caused
due to water accumulation in fields due to unscientific flood irrigation
wherein plants intake the water leaving salts behind. It is, however,
the sub-surface soil salinity that affects the plant growth. These salts
in sub-surface soil get trapped in root nodules of plants and prevent
further water intake. There have been very few studies conducted for
sub-surface soil salinity estimation. Hence this study aims to estimate
sub-surface soil salinity (at 60 cm depth) for early stage of wheat crop
growth in a simplified manner using freely available satellite data,
which is a novel feature and prime objective in this study. The study
utilizes Sentinel-1 SAR (Synthetic Aperture RADAR) data for backscatter
coefficient generation, Sentinel-2 multispectral data for NDSI
(Normalised Differential Salinity Index) generation and on ground
equipment for direct collection of soil electrical conductivity. The
data were collected for two dates in November and December 2019 and one
date for January 2020 during the early stage of wheat crop growth. The
dates were selected keeping in mind the satellite pass over the study
area of Rupnagar on the same day. Ordinary Least Squares regression was
used for modelling which gave R2-statistics of 0.99 and 0.958 in
training and testing phase and root mean square error of 1.92 in
modelling for soil salinity estimation.
26 Aug 2020Submitted to Land Degradation & Development 26 Aug 2020Submission Checks Completed
26 Aug 2020Assigned to Editor
30 Aug 2020Reviewer(s) Assigned
05 Jan 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
14 Jan 2021Editorial Decision: Revise Major
28 Jan 20211st Revision Received
30 Jan 2021Submission Checks Completed
30 Jan 2021Assigned to Editor
19 Apr 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
06 May 2021Editorial Decision: Revise Major
07 May 20212nd Revision Received
10 May 2021Submission Checks Completed
10 May 2021Assigned to Editor
10 May 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
14 May 2021Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
14 May 20213rd Revision Received
17 May 2021Submission Checks Completed
17 May 2021Assigned to Editor
17 May 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
17 May 2021Editorial Decision: Accept